1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to electronic communication devices and in particular to transmission and reception of electronic messages by electronic communication devices. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to message and recipient authentication and verification by electronic communication devices configured with mechanisms for capturing biometric input.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal electronic devices such as smart phones are becoming ubiquitous, as the devices provide a source of entertainment, communication, navigation, and personal assistance. Today's devices can have a number of biometrics technologies, such as imager, fingerprint sensor, voice detection, etc., that are embedded in the devices and which are used for user identification. Often, these personal electronic devices are utilized to generate and communicate messages, such as emails and/or text message, from the device to a recipient. It is expected that these messages would normally be created and/or transmitted by the owner or an authorized user of the device. However, this scenario is not always the case as these devices can occasionally be (i) borrowed by a friend or family member, (ii) lost or stolen, or (iii) subject to third party hacking. In such instances, message generation and transmission is not by the owner or an authorized user, and any type of content can be included in messages that are generated and/or transmitted from the device. Further, a recipient of a message can received a message from a sender known to the recipient but whose identity is being “spoofed” by a malicious third party.